


Delirium Furore

by PunishedPyotr



Series: *dʰegʷʰ [1]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: M/M, MLA cited, Mantis gets revenge, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Sexual Assault, Sickfic, reupload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-31 22:14:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13984431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunishedPyotr/pseuds/PunishedPyotr
Summary: “I deserve this,” Liquid whispered to himself. This was his punishment. His excruciatingly ironic punishment.Yes. That definitely sounded more like Mantis.The overdramatic little shit.





	Delirium Furore

199X, the Middle East.

Between Liquid’s busy schedule of hiring himself out to anyone who needed a man with a gun so he wouldn’t starve to death or blow his own brains out, and Mantis’ busy schedule of jetsetting and doing (for him) utterly trivial bullshit for various governments, corporations, and other nefarious groups who threw around way too much money, the two of them only managed to meet up about once a month on average. In this particular instance, it had been a little over five weeks (closer to six) since they’d last seen each other face-to-face.

Like hell Liquid was going to miss it.

“You look terrible,” Mantis said.

“I missed you too, Mantis.”

“I am serious. You are pale and look as though you are going to collapse at any second. Are you sure this is only a _mild_ illness?”

“Of course I’m sure,” Liquid snapped, then winced, hissing in a breath. His head was pounding.

Mantis gave him an extremely unimpressed look. “You should not be out in this heat with that high of a fever, Liquid.”

“I’m perfectly fine, Mantis.”

“You are _not_. You should have just called me and-“

“And wait _another_ forty days to see you again?” Liquid said, aghast, “no, Mantis. No. Sick or not, I had to-“

“Well, you did see me. And now you should head back to your hotel and get some rest.”

“But I just _got_ here,” Liquid whined.

Mantis ignored him, leaning forward and placing a hand on his forehead. It really was a high fever… hopefully it was just the desert environment exacerbating it, and Liquid’s body temperature would drop back down to something closer to normal and healthy once he got back inside. “Liquid, you need rest. Your contract in Médéa does not begin for another week.”

“It’ll take me a week to get there,” Liquid said mutinously, “I actually need to get going as soon as we’re through here.”

“You can fly from here to Algiers in eight hours.”

“Like I can afford that.”

“I’ll pay. You go back to your hotel and rest.”

“But—“

“No ‘but’s, Eli.”

Liquid glared at him, internally grumbling about the open use of his given name but also partly relieved at being railroaded into taking a few days off. As unwilling as he was to admit he was actually pretty severely ill, he really didn’t know how he was going to make the 6.7 thousand-kilometer solo trip from here to his next mercenary contract in his condition. Mantis sighed slightly behind his mask. One of these days, Liquid’s job was going to kill him, and it wasn’t going to be because people were shooting at him.

“I will be in town the next few days, anyway,” Mantis said, finally lowering his hand. “If you like, I can come visit you tomorrow after my work for the day is done.”

“…hm.”

“Actually, I will if you like or not,” he said, rolling his eyes, “I will need to check up on you.”

“I’m more than capable of taking care of myself, Mantis, even if I have come down with something.”

“Are you? Here we’ve been sitting for ten minutes and you haven’t even taken a sip of your water.”

Liquid started, then glanced at the glass of water Mantis had ordered as if it had suddenly appeared and surprised him. By now all the ice in it had melted.

“And you have not eaten all day, either.”

“I haven’t been hungry,” Liquid said, then took a pointed sip, which turned into him quickly gulping down the whole glass in one breath as he realized just how much his throat hurt.

Mantis thought about going ahead and ordering some food for him - they were at a café, after all, although seated outdoors - and informing that he really should eat, but he knew if he did that then Liquid would start nagging _him_ about the fact that _he_ virtually never ate, and Mantis really didn’t want to have that conversation _again_. It wasn’t his fault if he needed to take his gas mask off in order to eat, and if he couldn’t do that unless he was in a fairly unpopulated area… and even then, a score of people within range was it all it took to give him a serious headache, and it only got worse the more people he could hear. He preferred to wait until until there was no one around at all. And with the way his physiology was set up, he could wait for quite a while.

Liquid knew full well Mantis only didn’t continue the line of conversation about food because he didn’t want to be pestered about his weight. He didn’t comment.

Mantis stood up, leaving a few pul on the table. “Walk me back to my hotel,” he said.

“It’s on the way to mine anyway — although of course you knew that already,” Liquid said with a shrug, also standing. Mantis didn’t miss the way he - very briefly - had to struggle to keep his balance, but again Liquid didn’t comment, even mentally, so Mantis kept his mouth shut and his mind to himself… for the time being.

About halfway back to the hotel, the conversation dwindled then died, because Liquid was feeling increasingly woozy and unsteady on his feet and was concentrating on just walking and not showing any weakness or signs of illness. Mantis still didn’t comment, although he did watch him closely out of the corner of his eye. When they got to Mantis’ hotel, he put a hand on Liquid’s shoulder - and Liquid jumped.

“You should come in out of the heat for a few minutes.”

“I-” Liquid said, “I’m fine, Mantis.”

“You’re worrying me.”

“You worry too much.” He waved him off. “Anyway, I’ll be going now. See you tomorrow, if you must.”

“Mm.”

Mantis watched as he walked off down the street - then, unbearably light-headed, stumbled and caught himself on a wall, which he hauled himself up off of and kept moving, one hand holding his head in pain and confusion — then his thoughts cut out entirely and he collapsed, and didn’t move after that.

* * *

Liquid woke up in bed.

It took him a few seconds to realize it wasn’t _his_ bed. Or at least, it wasn’t the bed in the hotel he had been staying in. For one thing it was larger and more comfortable.

He wondered what happened.

“You passed out,” Mantis said, walking in and placing a paper cup of water on the bedside table. “You are in my hotel room now. And you are going to _stay_ here until you have recovered.”

“Oh,” Liquid said quietly as Mantis put his hand on his forehead again.

“Hmm. Your fever has only gotten higher… how is your head?”

“…hurts.”

“Have a drink and then go back to sleep,” Mantis said, brushing a few strands of hair out of Liquid’s eyes and then drawing back. “I can stay here with you for the rest of the day - hopefully the fever will break before morning tomorrow.”

“Hn.”

For once Liquid didn’t pointlessly argue and just did as he was told. Mantis left him napping in his bed and stepped into the other room for an hour or so - he had a few phone calls to make, no matter what Liquid thought his job really wasn’t just ‘show up, read a couple minds, leave’ - but after that his evening was perfectly free, so he perched himself on the edge of the bed and read a book, absent-mindedly petting the still-sleeping Liquid’s hair.

He did note that his fever hadn’t started to go down yet. If anything, it was worse.

Liquid grabbed Mantis’ wrist very tightly, very abruptly, and Mantis dropped his book, his whole body stiffening in surprise. He wasn’t often startled, especially by Liquid…

Oh. While Mantis hadn’t been paying too close attention to Liquid’s mind, it would have been easy to miss the transition from ‘asleep, dreaming’ to ‘awake, delirious’. Even now, Mantis would hardly have been able to tell that Liquid was, in fact, awake, if he hadn’t grabbed him and didn’t currently have very wide, dry eyes fixed on him.

“Mantis…?” he said in a parched voice.

“Do you need something, Liquid?” Mantis said, recomposing himself.

“…”

“Are you hungry?” he tried, trying to prompt any thought that might indicate to him what Liquid actually wanted. Trying to read his mind right now was met mostly with confused nonsense.

“I… don’t…” Liquid’s gaze shifted to where Mantis had yet to attempt to pull his wrist out of Liquid’s vice-like grip. “I… Mantis?”

“Yes?”

“Do you… do you…” The second half of his question kept getting lost somewhere in his fever, and for once in his life Mantis was put in the extremely unsettling position of not knowing what Liquid was trying to say. Now that he thought about it, Liquid almost never got sick, and certainly never this badly… Mantis had literally never seen him delirious with fever before…

His grip still not loosening (not that he seemed to be aware of how hard he was clenching his fingers), Liquid brought Mantis’ hand up to his face and nuzzled his palm tiredly. Mantis blinked.

“Oh. You only want attention, don’t you?”

“Mmn…”

“That is fine. I can do that. Now, let go of my wrist…”

“…”

“Let go of my wrist, Eli.”

Liquid sat up, still clinging to Mantis’ arm. At least using his given name seemed to get his attention.

“Mantis, I… I…”

“Shh. Let go of my wrist, I do not want to force you but you are starting to hurt me.”

Liquid just stared at him. He was absolutely not parsing anything that Mantis just said.

Mantis sighed. Fine. He really didn’t want to force him, but apparently the situation called for it — and while Liquid had never liked the idea of Mantis overriding his will, even in minor ways, he would certainly forgive him for it once he came back to his senses. Even then, in his current mental state, he might not notice a foreign impulse to relax his grip anyway…

His mental probe was met with what felt like a searing, white-hot open flame igniting in his head. He jerked back from Liquid, instinctively trying to escape it, and would have fallen off the bed if it weren’t for his wrist still trapped in Liquid’s hand.

Liquid kept staring at him with a dazed expression. He tilted his head slightly.

“Why…” Mantis rasped, then realized it was probably related to the fever. The _fever?_ He couldn’t believe this. _Him_ , the _world’s most powerful psychic_ , successfully prevented from doing anything to a mind more intrusive than just passively reading it by a _fever?_ He’d never experienced anything like this. Then again, he’d never tried to interfere with the will of a sick person before, or indeed spent very much time around sick people in general.

And to be fair, in all likelihood it was entirely possible for him to ‘brute-force’ his way past a fever. He just didn’t want to do that on Liquid. Too much potential to do something that would be… difficult to undo.

While he was thinking about it, Liquid pulled Mantis close and rested his head on his shoulder. His skin was almost as pyretic as the inside of Mantis’ skull a moment ago.

“Eli, let go of me.”

“Mnngh.”

“Very eloquent.” He tried to squirm out of his grasp, unsuccessfully. “Eli…”

He felt Liquid’s fever-hot lips against his throat - not really a kiss, it was more like he was just pressing his face against Mantis’ neck, or at least that was what Mantis told himself. He was uncomfortable enough already.

“Eli, that is enough. Let go of me, lie back down—“

Liquid tipped them together off the bed and to the floor with an unpleasant _thunk_. Mantis let out a pained gasp, then struggled to get his lungs working again - he had landed first, meaning Liquid had knocked the air out of him when he landed on top of him, and was _still_ on top of him and Liquid was a lot heavier than Mantis.

“That… was not… what… I meant, Eli…”

“Mantis, do you like me?”

Mantis’ eyes widened at the question. “Excuse me?” he said, his tone unintentionally angry.

Liquid sat up and blinked blearily down at him. Despite him moving, Mantis really wasn’t in any better of a position than before - Liquid was straddling his hips and had at some point grabbed Mantis’ other wrist, pinning him to the floor. At least it wasn’t done _maliciously_ , not in any sense of word, but _god_ Mantis was _not_ okay with this.

“Get off of me,” Mantis said, a hint of a hiss in his voice.

“Do you like me?”

“You… are confused, you are delirious, you are asking _stupid_ questions, Eli…”

Again, Liquid wasn’t parsing anything Mantis said. He leaned forward, and Mantis felt the burn of his lips against his neck again, and this time he couldn’t deny that it was definitely supposed to be a kiss.

This was not okay.

He didn’t know how or why Liquid had fixated on… _this_ , but in his dazed state there wasn’t going to be much hope of Mantis talking him down — nor much hope of him giving him the slip, either. He’d already demonstrated that he couldn’t just mentally force him to cease this nonsense at once, and he didn’t want to physically force him to let go of him, either. If he psychically pulled Liquid’s fingers away from his wrists, well, normally Liquid would have the sense to not resist the move but this wasn’t _normal_ and he didn’t _have_ any _sense_ right now. He probably _would_ resist and Mantis would end up breaking his fingers, he had no doubt about that. And if he just plain _pulled_ , Liquid would probably accidentally break Mantis’ wrists without even realizing it. So using his telekinesis would just get one or both of them injured, and, and—-

And there was almost definitely another way out of this, Mantis was keenly aware of that, but for the moment he was too flustered and nervous to think of it.

He hated this. _So much_.

“I love you, Mantis,” Liquid mumbled hoarsely against his skin, “I have for a long time…”

“I… know,” Mantis said even though he knew Liquid wasn’t - couldn’t - listen. True, it wasn’t until a few years _after_ Liquid had developed his silly little infatuation that Mantis realized what those feelings actually meant, but he did know full well about them. Unfortunately. Since it was Liquid, he didn’t find those feelings threatening or overtly offensive, but he definitely preferring leaving them unacknowledged. It was just… easier that way.

He never would have guessed that something as stupid as a _fever_ would change that. Dear god, what a mess of a situation this was.

“I just want…” Liquid started, then kissed him again, clumsy, his skin scorching Mantis’ where they came in contact, “I… want you…”

“Eli, don’t. Get off of me. I do not like this.”

He wasn’t getting through to him.

“Stop kissing me, Eli, let go of my wrists- get off of me—“

Still no internal response to what he was saying, let alone Liquid relenting. Perhaps Mantis’ tone of voice was too gentle? He felt it would be a bad idea to startle Liquid (it was _never_ a good idea to startle Liquid, he got violent), but he knew that Liquid was aware that Mantis was _speaking_ , or at least making _some_ kind of noise, and it seemed in his confused state he was just interpreting it as pleased moans or something like that.

“Eli,” Mantis said, his tone of voice as firm and displeased as he could make it without actually sounding as freaked out and, yes, angry as he really was right now, “stop it.”

“Hm…?”

“Stop it. I do _not_ like this. I hate this, Eli, I am uncomfortable and you are too heavy. You’re hurting me.”

“I…”

“Get off of me. I realize that you’re not thinking clearly right now but I do _not_ want this. Do you understand me, Eli?”

“I… I don’t…”

Mantis groaned in frustration, and then immediately regretted it as Liquid misinterpreted it and started kissing his neck again - moving down to the shoulders now. _Well, I suppose at the very least_ , Mantis thought dryly, _he has not gotten it into his head that he should take off my gas mask and try to kiss my mouth_. They were in the middle of a city with about 90,000 people in Mantis’ range, after all.

Liquid kept kissing him, and Mantis tilted his head away, staring at the wall. Fine then. This wasn’t _so_ bad. It wasn’t exactly his first choice of how he wanted to spend the evening, and it definitely wasn’t how he would have liked to come to grips with Liquid being in love with him, but… well, it could be worse. At least Liquid was being as gentle as he could when he barely had any cognizance of his own body right now, let alone Mantis’.

And he’d just let go of one of Mantis’ wrists! Unfortunately Mantis didn’t have the physical strength to push him off of him, so he gave up on that and just let his arm rest limply on the floor after about two seconds, but if things continued this way then Mantis would be able to scramble out from under him in no time.

Really, this wasn’t _that_ horrible.

Liquid’s hand slid under Mantis’ butt and squeezed, and Mantis changed his mind.

“Get _off_ of me, Eli!”

It was pointless. It was also pointless to squirm and start pushing back against Liquid again with his one free hand, but Mantis tried anyway - hoping more that Liquid would be able to pick up on his body language eventually than anything else. It wasn’t until Liquid moaned unevenly against Mantis’ collarbone that Mantis realized that his writhing was having the opposite effect as intended.

Goddammit he really hated Liquid’s mind being too incoherent to read. It was just one nasty surprise after another, wasn’t it?

“Mantis,” Liquid whispered, shifting slightly, resting his head against Mantis’ shoulder again. Mantis could hear a vague awareness of a throbbing headache and vision briefly being washed in gray. “You… gnh…”

“You are ill, Eli, this is not a good idea right now. We can talk about this later, would you like that?” Mantis said, frantically restrategizing.

“Ah… I, ah… you…”

“You are going to faint again at this rate. Just lie down on the floor next to me… go on, Eli…”

Liquid sat up again and shook his head, trying to clear it. “It’s… it’s so hot in here, Mantis…”

“You have a fever. You are _ill_.”

“Ghh…”

Mantis gripped his shoulder, trying to think of what to do before the situation _really_ escalated. He could feel little shivers running through Liquid’s body. “Eli, for your own sake- oh, _stop_.“

Liquid had shifted his weight again, and his attention had been caught by the feeling of his crotch rubbing up against the hard bone of Mantis’ hip, which he was now shakily grinding against, biting his lip. His face, already flushed with fever, was even more red now, and his already unfocused eyes were lidded with pleasure. A really lewd expression…

“Is this really what it comes to?” Mantis said, not bothering to hide the disgust in his voice, “you’re in love with me, so you are going to molest me while hallucinating from fever? …what is that _stiffness_ I am—- oh. That is repulsive, Eli.”

“I, I- I love y-you, Mantis…”

“If it were anyone else trying to do this to me, Eli, I would have turned them into a smear of blood on the wall fifteen minutes ago.”

“S-So much… I l-love you so m-much…”

“Shut up.”

Mantis gave up entirely, going completely still and glowering at the wall as Liquid continued humping him, his erection undeniable. This was awful. This was _stupid_. He was certainly going to get back at Liquid for this, somehow, whenever the fever broke and he was in a clearer state of mind to comprehend Mantis’ grievance with him.

And then they would both pretend this all never happened.

Right?

“M-Mantis… oh, g-god…”

“Are you almost done?”

Liquid slumped over sideways, trembling. After a moment, Mantis realized he could sit up again, and did. He stared at Liquid in disbelief for another moment, then brushed his hair out of his eyes.

Liquid was flushed, sweaty, and pretty much completely unconscious.

And he still had an erection, but Mantis figured his dick could fend for itself.

* * *

The next morning, when he woke up, Liquid took a moment to figure out why his whole body felt raw and oversensitive before actually opening his eyes. Was it just the fever? He couldn’t tell if he still had it or not, since he didn’t feel as unbearably overheated as he had the previous day, but his head still hurt and his muscles still pointlessly ached, but… _was_ this a fever thing? He felt like he had some serious blue balls.

Maybe it was that dream he had?

“That was not a dream,” came Mantis’ icy voice from nearby, and Liquid’s eyes snapped open.

“Er…” Liquid started, then coughed, realizing his dry his throat was. “What do you mean, that wasn’t a-“

“It was not a dream,” Mantis said, in a more even although still slightly cool tone, then helped Liquid sit up - Liquid winced at the pressure of his hand on his back - and handed him a paper cup of water. “Of course, you were completely out of it the whole time, so it would be unfair of me to be angry at you for it, but…”

_…but you aren’t exactly a ‘fair’ person_ , Liquid thought, drinking the water.

Mantis shrugged. “I make a surprising amount of allowances for you.”

Liquid was silent. That _wasn’t_ a dream? That was… that was _terrible_. Granted, he couldn’t remember it very clearly and had no idea what was going through his head at the time, but no matter what he had thought while he was doing it he really couldn’t imagine Mantis reacting to his, er, seduction attempt with anything other than revulsion and discomfort. In short, that was _so_ not consensual. Liquid could hardly believe he’d tried to do _that_ to Mantis, the one person he actually cared about, against his will. That was _horrible_.

And Mantis was being surprisingly… gracious about it, for now at least. Which was extremely eyebrow-raising, considering Liquid would have expected him to throw a fit over it even if it had just been a dream. Considering it wasn’t, well… if Mantis wanted to kill him over this, Liquid honestly would have let him. He deserved as much. He was shocked Mantis apparently wasn’t planning on it.

He must be up to something.

“We do need to talk,” Mantis said, casually sitting across Liquid’s lap like it was the most natural thing to do right now. Again, even though Mantis was very light, just the pressure against Liquid’s sore flesh was enough to make him grimace. “You did say some rather… interesting things last night.”

Liquid blanched. “I… er…”

Oh god. He _had_ said some rather interesting things. Some things he had never intended to actually admit to either out loud or in articulate thought, since he had been pretty certain that Mantis had never noticed all these years, so…

“Oh, no, I noticed,” Mantis said, taking the now-empty cup from him and placing it on the bedside table, while at the same time with his hand feeling Liquid’s forehead. “I have known about your… interest in me for years, Eli.”

“You- I— don’t call me-“

“Shh. I realize that you never said a thing about it because you feared my reproach, but for my part I was more comfortable with where our relationship _already_ was. I didn’t feel the need to complicate it like this…” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Hm. You are much better now than you were yesterday, but your fever is not gone completely. You have another day to go under my care, I’m afraid.”

Liquid leaned away from Mantis, staring at him with his eyebrows knit together. “Mantis, you-“

“You are not going to make our relationship more complicated, are you, Eli?” Mantis said, “I may not be ‘in love with’ you, but I do care for you with all my tiny, blackened heart.” He ran his fingers back through Liquid’s hair. “I can accept your feelings, Eli, so long as you do not come to expect anything… unreasonable from me.”

“You, ah… you mean like last night.”

“That was selfish of you, Eli. I did not enjoy it.”

“I figured you didn’t. Mantis, I’m- I’m really— I’m s-sorry, Mantis, I really am, I just-“

Mantis gently pushed Liquid down flat on his back and moved up so that he was straddling his stomach - not that leather pants against his bare skin was a pleasant thing for Liquid at the moment. “Hush,” he said, putting a finger to Liquid’s lips. “It did give me an idea. If you want me that badly, Eli…”

Liquid’s hands jerked up to the level of his eyes and were pressed against the mattress by some invisible force. At the same time, his legs were forcibly spread and his ankles pinned to the bedspread. Liquid tensed. Oh god. He couldn’t move. And what the hell was that look in Mantis’ eyes? This was a lot to process, considering he just woke up and still had a slight fever…

“…I may as well indulge you.”

“Mantis,” Liquid said nervously, trying unsuccessfully to pull his hands away from his psychic bindings and only succeeding in awkwardly wiggling his elbows, “what are you doing?”

“Were you not listening to me just now?” Mantis said in a mockingly innocent tone of voice, then turned around so all Liquid could see was his back. “I am indulging you, Eli. You and your disgusting instincts.”

Liquid was baffled. Indulging him? How the fuck did Mantis go from getting molested to deciding to _indulge_ his molester? By rights he should be trying to castrate Liquid right about now. Wait. Oh god. Maybe he was. Maybe the word ‘indulge’ was meant to be ironic.

He knew Mantis was rolling his eyes without seeing it, and before he even said anything. “Eli, I am not going to hurt you. I got myself _into_ this mess because I did not want to hurt you.”

“…um—“

“Just relax.”

Any protest Liquid might have made was interrupted by Mantis’ hands on the inside of his thighs. _Oh god_ , Liquid thought - there might have been the barrier of Liquid’s pants between them, but _fuck_ if his skin didn’t tingle almost painfully at the touch. He shifted restlessly, and Mantis’ hands moved up his legs to his groin and bloody fucking hell Liquid had never gotten hard so fast in his life.

“Mm, eager, aren’t you?”

“Oh my god, Mantis- oh fuck…“

This was fantastic, honestly, this was more than he ever could have hoped for, but _why_ —?

Mantis unzipped Liquid’s pants and pushed his underwear down, and whatever Liquid had just been wondering about was entirely forgotten as he felt Mantis’ soft hand on his dick. He bit his lip, squirming, pushing up into Mantis’ touch. Mantis’ other hand pressed down on his hip.

“I would prefer you to sit still,” he said. To emphasize that point, the pressure at Liquid’s wrists and ankles briefly increased enough to sting.

“I- I— ahh- sorry. I w-will.”

“We will see about that.” Mantis ran a finger up the underside of Liquid’s cock, from base to tip, and Liquid drew in a deep breath, his head almost spinning at the sensation.

“O-Oh…”

Mantis repeated the move and Liquid found himself shaking from the effort of not jerking his hips up - or maybe he was shaking for some other reason, it really didn’t matter. He unsuccessfully swallowed a moan.

“What a shameful sound,” Mantis mocked, “you are lucky I like to stay in the sort of hotels where you _can’t_ hear what is going on in neighboring rooms.”

“Ah, oh fuck, M-Mantis… mmn… nh… g-god…”

“Imagine what this could do to your reputation, Eli. Imagine if your clients knew how desperate you are for my touch… no one would care how good a soldier you are, they’d never hire you again and you would have no choice but to live with me once more…”

“D-Don’t say things like th-that, Mantis, I- I-I— mnngh…!”

Mantis’ other hand got in on the action, gently massaging his balls, and Liquid gasped, unconsciously raising his hips, lifting Mantis up off the bed. “I told you to sit still, Eli.”

“S-Sorry, sorry, I’m sorry, Mantis, I-”

“So much apologizing… it’s almost as if you feel guilty about something.”

“You… I… y-you…”

“Hmm.” Mantis circled his finger round and round the head of Liquid’s dick. “If you like this so much, then you are more than welcome to be vocal. Go ahead, embarrass yourself…”

Determined not to do exactly that, Liquid bit his lip again, but the more he rocked his hips against Mantis’ hands the harder it was to keep quiet. He moaned helplessly.

“There… how indecorous of you, Eli.”

“A-Aa-aaah, oh god, Mantis, I-I’m sorry…”

“Do you think you’re being punished for touching me the way you did?” Mantis said, stroking him just a little faster, “speak up, Eli, your mind is in a haze right now. I do not feel like expending so much effort just to read it.”

“I, ah, I, nhh… y-yes?”

“How do you think I am punishing you?”

“You, gnn… you… ahh… I d-don’t know, Mantis, j-just…” This really felt too good to be a punishment… the thought crossed his mind that Mantis had, in actuality, _enjoyed_ Liquid going after him like that and was just manufacturing indignation as an excuse to do this as so-called revenge, but he chased it away. Someone else perhaps he could believe that from, but not Mantis.

“Ah, you know me so well,” Mantis said, and abruptly the stimulation stopped. Liquid whined, bucking his hips, and Mantis slid off of him (or rather, half-fell, losing his balance as Liquid strained for more) and stood next to the bed. He leaned over him again, the filter of his gas mask just barely touching his nose. “I have a job to do, you know. I am afraid you will have to fend for yourself until I return this evening.”

Liquid blinked, glanced down at his swollen dick sticking indecently up into the air, then looked back up at Mantis, eyes wide. “B-But I… I h-haven’t…”

“I am well aware, Eli.” He stood back up, then took Liquid’s chin in one hand, brushing his thumb over Liquid’s lower lip. Liquid whimpered. “But it will subside eventually.”

“But- but- oh god, Mantis, p-please, I’m so close, c-can’t you j-just-“

“No.”

“B-But—“

“I said _no_. Listen this time.” He let go of Liquid’s face. “And you are not allowed to take care of it yourself, either. If you touch yourself while I am gone… well, I am going to be very angry with you when I return.”

Liquid swallowed hard. He didn’t want to think about what Mantis had in mind if he angered him further. And to be fair, Liquid couldn’t have gotten himself off right now anyway - he was still pinned to the mattress… although surely Mantis was about to let him up, since he was leaving and all… right?

“Oh, you’ll be able to move again when I am out of range of the hotel. That should be in about…” Mantis cocked his head. “…twenty minutes.”

Fuck.

Twenty minutes splayed immobile on a hotel mattress, waiting for his erection to fade into the second case of blue balls in less than twelve hours.

_Fuck!_

“That’s the spirit,” Mantis cackled, then walked out of Liquid’s line of sight, not even bothering to throw a blanket over him. “Call me if you need me, you know my number. I am leaving some money and a keycard to the room on the table here - _do_ eat something while I am gone, there are numerous food stalls just down the street.”

“W-Wait, Mantis—“ Liquid called after him, but the room door opened, shut, and locked. Very definitively. Mantis wasn’t coming back until he was either done with work for the day, or he absolutely had to.

_You fucking tosser_ , Liquid thought, knowing full well Mantis could hear. No mental response, though. Not only had Mantis left, but he was also ignoring him.

So.

That was that, then.

Liquid closed his eyes, sighing shakily. Fine. Twenty minutes. He could wait that out just fine, even if he was humiliatingly exposed like this. At least Mantis had been nice enough to lock the door - there wouldn’t be any room service or whoever the hell walking in on Liquid in this state. And his arousal _would_ subside, he knew that, and he knew it would subside before his twenty minutes were up, anyway.

And then he’d just be stuck with the worst blue balls he’d ever had in his life, on top of a lingering, aching fever.

Goddammit. He was going to be too sensitive to do anything besides uncomfortably writhe in bed for the rest of the day, wasn’t he?

“I deserve this,” Liquid whispered to himself. This was his punishment. His excruciatingly ironic punishment.

Yes. That definitely sounded more like Mantis.

The overdramatic little shit.

* * *

When Liquid was allowed to sit up again, he did so with a wince. Everything hurt. He was also fairly certain that a stiff breeze could get him hard again right now, his body was _that_ sensitive. When did Mantis say he was getting back? Evening? That was vague…

He glanced around, his eyes finally settling on the clock. It was just past eight in the morning.

He let out a long breath. “This is going to be a _long_ day,” he muttered, fixing his pants for what little good that would do to salvage his dignity.

Remembering that Mantis had told him to eat, Liquid thought about breakfast and stood up, and immediately regretted it. His knees still felt weak - that, he was pretty sure, was the fault of the fever, but when it came to his body at this point all bets were off. At least he didn’t feel _too_ light-headed… and what dizziness he did feel could probably be blamed more on the fact that he hadn’t eaten in two days than anything else.

Not that food sounded very appealing right now. Especially not with the low, tight heat still in his belly. Hell, he didn’t even want to go outside, where the desert sun burned and there were _people_ he would be forced to interact with when what he really wanted to do was curl up somewhere dark and cramped and feel sorry for himself and his twice-denied orgasm.

_I brought this upon myself_ , he thought tiredly. It was well within Mantis’ rights to treat him this way, considering what he had done while his brain was slowly melting last night.

But dammit he did _not_ have to enjoy this.

Of course, he didn’t have anything else to do, either… TV sets had been banned in this country a few months prior, so it wasn’t surprising that even a high-class hotel doing its best to cater to foreigners wouldn’t have one. (Speaking of high-class — Mantis’ hotel booking was _much_ nicer than Liquid’s; Liquid had been staying in a tiny, single-room "suite" with a ratty bed and a communal bathroom… although calling it a bathroom was generous… whereas Mantis had gotten something with two rooms, one with a nice bed and one with a couch and a low table, and an attached bathroom with its own shower and everything. That man just had to travel with flair, didn’t he?)

Bored and trying to distract himself, and only entertained by nosing around the hotel room for about five minutes, Liquid briefly considered showering - God knew he needed it - but decided against it on the grounds that, at the moment, nudity really wasn’t the best idea even in the most innocent of contexts. Instead he decided to raid Mantis’ suitcase.

He wasn’t surprised to find quite a few books.

Honestly, that was fair. It had been a long time since Liquid was able to afford such frivolities, but Mantis certainly made enough money - that, and he didn’t have to spend anything on weapons or ammunition, and very little on food. If Liquid was being honest with himself, he was kind of jealous. Mantis was a big-ticket item while he himself was just barely scraping by… and the fact that Mantis had previously offered to just give Liquid money whenever he needed it was even worse… Liquid’s pride only _barely_ allowed him to let Mantis pay for his meals whenever they met up at restaurants. The fact that he had agreed to Mantis buying him a whole plane ticket was just because he knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of that one.

And, come to think of it, he barely remembered their conversation at the café. He mostly recalled Mantis nagging him.

He probably _should_ eat. Just not right now.

In Mantis’ mini-library he found a well-loved book about the order Mantodea that Liquid fondly remembered stealing from a used bookstore in Alma, New York when he was thirteen and, unsurprisingly, a copy of _Carrie_. Of course Mantis owned that. Hell, it was probably his favorite. After the Mantodea book, of course.

_Carrie_ could keep Liquid occupied until the evening, though. With a break for lunch, obviously. At some point. When the cramping warmth in his stomach died down and he could walk normally again.

…

No matter how dryly Stephen King wrote about ‘dirty pillows’, it still put the image of a woman’s breasts in Liquid’s mind and he could feel his heart beating in his crotch again.

“Dammit,” Liquid growled, shutting his eyes and scrubbing a hand over his face. “God. fucking. dammit.”

So _Carrie_ wasn’t the best idea. Great. He wished he still had his copy of _Lord of the Flies_ , the one he’d managed to hang onto since he was nine - but sadly it was in his hotel room on the other side of the city. He could use it right now. After all, the lurid descriptions of the boys’ naked bodies were not _nearly_ as _interesting_  to Liquid now as they had been when he was twelve.

Then again, there _was_ that one sow-hunting scene…

His pants hadn’t been this tight two minutes ago.

_Stop it_ , he told himself, running his hands through his hair in frustration, _stop thinking about it. Think about something else. Literally anything else._ Anything _not sexually charged, goddammit._

But of course the best way to ensure that someone thought about something was to tell them _not_ to think about it, so Liquid was left awkwardly shifting his weight against the couch, trying _really_ hard to wring some measure of satisfaction out of what Mantis _probably_ wouldn’t consider masturbation.

A different book, he realized as he panted and dug his nails into his leg, might be good right now.

Before he snapped and did something Mantis would make sure he regretted, Liquid replaced _Carrie_ and grabbed the first book aside from that that his hand brushed, which was the worn Mantodea book. Dry reading, Liquid expected, but for God’s sake they were _bugs_ , Liquid might be stupidly randy right now but he wasn’t depraved enough to get turned on by _insects_ \- just by the man who shared their name…

_No, don’t think about it, Liquid_.

Forty-five minutes later and he’d found the book boring enough that he calmed back down. He lazily turned a page and his eyes fell on the words SEXUAL CANNIBALISM.

“Perhaps I should skip this section,” Liquid thought out loud. But of course, he was never one to listen to good advice, even and especially if it came from himself.

> Decapitation of the male praying mantis by the female in association with sexual behaviour was reported anecdotally in the older literature for _Stagmomantis carolina_ (Howard 1886) and _Mantis religiosa_ (Fabre 1897). Male copulatory reflexes released by decapitation were described in _Tenodera aridifolia_ (Aoki  & Tateishi 1927) and subsequently in _M. religiosa_ (Roeder 1935). Roeder (1935) speculated that these reflexes represent physiological adaptions subserving sexual cannibalism. Such reports have contributed to the impression that cannibalism is a normal preamble to copulation in the praying mantis (e.g. Curtis 1979; Alcock 1979). Inasmuch as individual praying mantises mate several times, however (Rau  & Rau 1913; Roeder 1967), decapitation of the male as a mating strategy would appear vulnerable to strong selection pressures.

And so on. It was quite interesting, really. Apparently when the female bit the male’s head off mid-fuck, his movement actually got _more_ vigorous, pumping his little buggy hip-equivalents more passionately after death and totally filling her up with sperm, and going twice as long as he would have been able to if she’d let him keep his head. So evidently this sort of thing was turning mantises in general into whole species of submissive, masochistic males - since they were the ones who passed on their genes - and dominatrixes.

Now that Liquid thought about it, _his_ Mantis was more on the feminine end of the spectrum here. He could vividly imagine a maskless Mantis biting at his neck until his flesh tore and bled while fucking him—-

Liquid took a deep breath through his nose. Thinking about Mantis fucking him was absolutely _the last thing_ he should be doing right now.

And furthermore, why the hell was _Mantis_ fucking _him_ in his mind now? Not that he’d really ever allowed himself to consider it, except in deliberately abstruse fantasies he only indulged in when he was a thousand miles away from Mantis himself… but he thought he would have preferred being the one on top…

Granted, he had to admit that Mantis pinning him down, mocking and teasing him, and generally dominating the shit out of him was _hot as all fucking Hell_.

“Oh my god,” Liquid said quietly. He was really learning a lot right now. About insects, and about himself.

Namely, the fact that he, the feared White Mamba, was a deviant little bitch who got off on being pushed around and also just popped a boner over a book about bugs.

He buried his face in the book again, grumbling to himself and doing his best to ignore his arousal. “You disgusting, loathsome pervert,” he said to himself in his best imitation of Mantis’ voice.

It really didn’t help his erection.

* * *

“I _told_ you to eat,” Mantis said, setting down some kabob he’d purchased from a nearby street vendor next to the money he’d left Liquid that morning.

Liquid just grunted from where he was lying on the couch with book of Kipling resting on his face. (It was actually Liquid’s book originally, Mantis wasn’t entirely sure how it had ended up in his possession.)

“Wake up, Liquid. I bought you something. Come eat.”

Liquid sat up - Mantis had to catch his book - and yawned, rubbing one eye. He was sort of dizzy and still sleepy from his nap. “Evening already?”

“Time flies when you decide to pass out on the couch for six hours, Liquid.”

“I didn’t have much else to do…” His eyes fell on the food and he frowned slightly. “Mantis, I’m really not hungry—“

“You are only going to get sicker if you do not eat,” Mantis said, gesticulating with the book pointedly, then stepped into the other room to put his suitcase back in order from the mess Liquid made of it while looking for something to distract himself. He could hear Liquid mentally convincing himself to at least _try_ the kabob.

Mantis returned to find Liquid scarfing the meal down as his body remembered that he hadn’t eaten in close to three days now.

“Better?” Mantis said once he was done, stroking his hair affectionately.

“Mm, yes… thank you, Mantis…”

“You are more than welcome.” He checked his temperature again. Seemed like his fever was finally gone, so Mantis would have to let him go the following morning. Somewhere deep inside him, Mantis felt a little pang at that. But at least they still had one more night together.

And Mantis wasn’t done with him.

“Well, Liquid, other than ignoring my instructions to feed yourself,” Mantis said, sprawling out on the couch idly next to him, resting his head on one hand and watching him closely out of the corner of his eye, “I see you have behaved yourself…”

“Oh…”

Granted, Liquid was still sorely feeling the frustration, but the nap had helped.

He went slightly red nonetheless and avoided eye contact. “Er, yes.”

“Come here, Eli.”

Liquid gave him a look, half annoyed at Mantis going back to using _that_ name, half confused at being told to come here when he was already sitting six inches away from him.

“No,” Mantis said, “on the floor, in front of me.” He pointed. “Here, Eli.”

Liquid hesitated for a few moments, but when Mantis slitted his eyes at him he got off the couch and knelt between Mantis’ lazily spread knees. He knew Mantis was up to something - he was being careful not to make any offensive assumptions of _what_ \- but he had figured out that his punishment hadn’t ended with a day of torturous oversensitivity he wasn’t allowed to relieve.

“Very perceptive of you,” Mantis said, taking his jaw in hand and rubbing a thumb over his cheek, “see how intelligent you can be, Eli, when you just try?”

“I…”

“Shh.” He slid his fingers under Liquid’s chin, tilting his face up to look at him. This was the pièce de résistance, the coup de grâce — one last thing Mantis had to do before he let Liquid off the hook for his appalling behavior the night before. To utterly debase him… to force him to do something so degrading, so _submissive_ , that Mantis could think of few things as disgusting and unpleasant to do as this.

Or at least, few things he was willing to convince _himself_ to engage in.

“You had quite the revelation earlier,” Mantis said, “while reading Liske and Davis, did you not?”

Liquid’s blush deepened. “I might have.”

“Mm.” He traced his fingers down Liquid’s throat, feeling him swallow unconsciously and shiver, briefly. “Do you like that?”

Liquid didn’t answer - out loud, anyway. But his thoughts were loud and clear.

_Yes, yes, god yes_.

Mantis narrowed his eyes. It almost made him want to smile. “You might be a deviant little bitch, Eli, but you are _my_ deviant little bitch.”

“I— I’m- yes, Mantis, I am.”

“Good answer.” Mantis settled back onto the couch and, before he could let his better judgement distract him, gestured to his crotch. “Put that smart mouth of yours to better use than assaulting me.”

“I…” Liquid was hyperaware of two things right now: Mantis, in front of him, and the throbbing pressure in his groin. “Yes, Mantis.”

“And keep your hands where I can feel them.”

“Y-Yes, Mantis. I will.” Moving quickly, fumbling nervously, Liquid undid Mantis’ pants, keeping his wide eyes fixed on what laid behind them. Already Mantis was starting to have second thoughts. Of course, he couldn’t back down now, but…

He felt Liquid’s arousal spike out of nowhere as he exposed Mantis’ cock, and as much as Mantis was trying to keep cooly detached, his breath still caught.

“Wow,” Liquid said, staring.

“No commentary, Eli. Just do as you were told.”

Liquid bit his lip for a second, then took Mantis’ limp dick in one hand and self-consciously leaned forward to kiss the tip. He’d always been too attached to Mantis to get much - well, any - experience with this sort of thing, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. He flicked his tongue over Mantis’ cock, and it jerked in response. Mantis grit his teeth behind his mask.

Oh, god. Why did he think this was a good idea, again?

Did he only have this idea because he was too steeped in Liquid’s hormone-addled brain?

Honestly, that seemed kind of likely. His skin crawled as Liquid got bolder, trailing his tongue and lips down, and steadied himself with his hands gently resting on the insides of Mantis’ thighs.

“Agh…”

“S-Something wrong, Mantis?”

“No, no…” Mantis tangled a hand in Liquid’s hair, tilting his own head back. He really didn’t want to watch. “Keep going.”

He did. Eagerly, too. Mantis could feel his composure cracking - so much for oral sex being _submissive_ , if how he felt now was anything to go by then he imagined if he did it to Liquid then the man would be an absolute _mess_ in under a minute. As it stood, he was anyway - gripping Mantis’ legs and sucking on the side of his dick, lapping up pre-seminal fluid and drunkenly relishing how hard he was able to make it — it wasn’t much comfort to Mantis.

“You whore,” Mantis whispered, mostly to make himself feel better about this.

“…?”

“You heard me. You are a whore - so desperate for my cock, Eli, for shame…”

Liquid accepted his insults without protest, focusing on Mantis’ dick. He dragged his tongue over it, not unlike a cat scraping meat off a bone. Mantis twitched.

“You like this that much? It is _disgusting_ \- absolutely revolting - consider it an honor, Eli, that I would ever even _think_ about deigning to let a slut like you suck me off.”

Liquid shifted his weight forward, rubbing the head of his cock against the inside of his underwear, and moaned against Mantis’ dick.

“How disgraceful… that you are more than willing to do something so vile- so _base_ — you’re like an _animal_ —“

He stretched his lips around it, rubbing the soft inside of his cheek against the head. Mantis gasped, a loud rasp through his gas mask, and shakily thrust into Liquid’s mouth.

“You- you tramp, you— agh— you know, people like you are put to death here - put to death or made to work as prostitutes… a-ahh…”

Mantis’ dick hit the back of his throat - Liquid choked, and pulled himself off of it, wheezing, absent-mindedly rubbing Mantis’ thighs. Mantis took a shuddering breath, tugging on Liquid’s hair.

“A-Are you enjoying y-yourself?” Liquid stammered, shifting his weight back and forth again.

“I did not ask you to speak,” Mantis said stiffly.

_Well, are you?_ Liquid thought, pressing his lips against Mantis’ cock once more.

“Gh… it seems even I have to put up with these selfish instincts… this… visceral response…”

There was his tongue again, hot and wet.

“But I- I am not like you, Eli— I do not _obsess_ over-“

_I love you_ , Liquid thought dreamily.

“Ah…”

This was too much.

“E-Eli…!!”

His back arched as his climax hit him, his hips raising uselessly, getting semen all over a somewhat surprised Liquid’s face. Mantis collapsed bonelessly back into the couch cushions, panting.

Oh god.

Liquid blinked. After a second he stuck out his tongue, tasting a bit of semen that had dripped onto his lips, then made such a disgusted expression that Mantis laughed rather breathlessly.

“No, it does not taste good, does it…?” he said, tiredly running his fingers through Liquid’s hair.

“Nn.” Liquid shook his head, his grip tightening on Mantis’ legs again. Now that he no longer had Mantis’ erection to distract himself with, he was excruciatingly aware of his own.

“What a mess you’ve made… look at you, your handsome face is all covered in filth… how lewd...”

“D-Did I do g-good?” Liquid asked, rocking back and forth again.

“Mm?”

“Th-that was your f-first orgasm, w-wasn’t it? Did- did you like it, Mantis? Did I d-do good?”

“Oh, yes.” He kept petting Liquid’s hair. “It was… not entirely dreadful. You certainly worked very hard to please me.”

Liquid let out a thin whine, rubbing his cheek against Mantis’ thigh.

“Perhaps you even deserve a reward, Eli.”

“Do- do you f-forgive me?” Liquid said.

“Of course I do,” Mantis cooed, “I was not all that angry with you, Eli. You made me very uncomfortable, yes, but I know in your little fever-stricken brain you only had the intention to make love to me, not rape me. I see no reason to resent or fear you for this. And I would say we are even now.”

“A-Ah… I’m… I-I’m glad…”

He kept rocking back and forth, trying desperately to find friction where cloth was already too slick with pre-seminal fluid, staring pleadingly up at Mantis and whimpering softly. Sighing, Mantis took pity on him, shifting his leg so it was between Liquid’s and next to the tent of his pants, allowing him to rut up against his ankle.

Liquid finally, finally orgasmed with an undignified moan, his face pressed against Mantis’ hip.

* * *

“Oh god. Right in my pants.”

“Liquid…”

“You barely touched me.”

“Liquid, calm down.”

After shooing Liquid off to the shower and cleaning himself up, Mantis - feeling uncharacteristically drowsy, probably from ejaculation - had retired to bed. He’d let Liquid join him after Liquid had initially thought he was relegated to the couch tonight.

“It’s pathetic, Mantis,” Liquid said, hiding his face against Mantis’ neck, his arms around his waist pulling him a little closer. “Just… _pathetic_.”

“You were already close.”

“Still…”

“Oh, hush. Keep this up and I might decide I really do enjoy humiliating you.”

Liquid shut his mouth, but his mortification didn’t abate. Mantis rolled his eyes, running his fingers through Liquid’s hair.

What a strange day this had been. Well, two days, really.

“You really love me that much?” Mantis said abruptly.

“Eh? Of course.”

“…why?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” He nuzzled him. “You’re the only one who understands me, the only one I can let my guard down around, the only one I can trust wholeheartedly… the only one who really cares about me…”

“I…” Mantis pressed the filter of his gas mask against the top of Liquid’s head. He’d known about those feelings for years… nothing Liquid was saying came as a surprise… “I- still do not understand.”

“Love’s funny like that, isn’t it?”

“Hmm. Maybe so.”

There was silence for a few minutes, and Mantis realized that Liquid had dozed off. Ah well. It must be nice to be so thoroughly sated, a full stomach after three days of no appetite and empty balls after Mantis had wound him up like that. Mantis, personally, still felt a little put off with himself.

But at least it had been with Liquid. It was… fine, if it was with Liquid. Enjoyable, even, on some level. Perhaps Mantis would even let Liquid coax him into doing it again sometime, eventually. Especially if he fell asleep against him like this again afterwards.

This wasn’t so bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Liske, E., and W.J. Davis. "Sexual behaviour of the Chinese praying mantis." _Animal Behaviour_ 32.3 (1984): 916-18. Web.


End file.
